Sabotage suspected at San Onofre Nuclear Plant

November 30, 2012 (San Diego)—Southern California Edison has notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of possible sabotage at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating facility, after finding coolant poured in the oil reservoir of an emergency backup generator at Unit 3, Energy News reports.

The FBI is taking over the investigation and criminal charges are possible, according to a plant employee who spoke under condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals, Huffington Post reports tonight. Previous news stories have speculated that a disgruntled employee could be the culprit due to recent layoff announcements, though the NRC and FBI have not ruled out terrorism.

Failure of emergency generators at Fukushima were key factors in that plant’s meltdown last year. A meltdown at San Onofre would force evacuation of San Diego, portions of East County and also parts of Orange and Riverside counties and could potentially leave the region contaminated for generations.

If the coolant had not been found at San Onofre and the generators activated, Edison indicated that a control that prevents the generator from running too fast would have failed, John Reynoso, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspector at San Onofre, said, Energy News reported on November 9 when the discovery was initially made.

The only reason this wasn't a disaster is because the reactors are offline due to other serious problems. Yet Edison is pushing forward to reopen then and insanely, amid a sabotage investigative, has decided to launch "virtual tours" of the nuclear plant's interior! This facility has the worst safety record of any nuclear plant in America, its workers are speaking out to warn of dangers, and 9 cities within the evacuation zone have now raised serious concerns.

If we have gone without the power since January, nearly a full year, we obviously don't need it. No way is it worth the risk to repower these. And let's not forget that 2 of the 911 Al Qaeda terrorists were based in San Diego....a chilling thought.

3. I was reading about the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

last night and what we don't need is a nuclear power plant going belly up here. Any one of our nuclear plants are sited where there are thousands if not in some cases millions of people live and they all will be impacted. We need to do whatever it takes to get to where we are shutting them all down while keeping our fingers crossed, so to say, that one of them doesn't go all Fukushima Daiichi on us. No matter the reason the end result will be the same

4. The coastline surrounding San Onofe is STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL, some of the absolute best....

...of Southern California.

"A meltdown at San Onofre would force evacuation of San Diego, portions of East County and also parts of Orange and Riverside counties and could potentially leave the region contaminated for generations."